With One Look
by Nataku2
Summary: Shonen ai InuiKaidoh. Instrospective into Kaidoh and Inui's thoughts as they go through another training day...or is it? Is data really 100?


Title: With One Look  
  
Author: Nataku  
  
Contact: kokuneko7@yahoo.com  
  
Rating: PG-13  
  
Category: General/Romance  
  
Pairing: Inui/Kaidoh  
  
Series: Prince of Tennis  
  
Disclaimer: Does not belong to me ;_;  
  
Author's Note: I always wanted to do one of these ^^;; sadly I have fallen behind on fic challenges...bad me! Oke, LOVE Inui/Kaidoh to death X3  
  
Challenge: "With One Look"  
  
Use the phrase "with one look" in your fic. It can be buried deep, or the theme of the fic.  
  
Examples: "With one look, I knew things were never going to be the same again."  
  
"We fell in love with one look."  
  
"With one look I could see that the building was about to fall down."  
  
What happens with the power of one look? The phrase must remain in tact.  
  
90 minutes to look this one over.  
  
5:22 pm  
  
With One Look  
  
He didn't like it when people looked at him too long. The stares that most people gave him and the look of fear in their eyes riled his temper and made him hiss in frustration. He knew he was...different, but still that was no reason to stare. It was rude. The weight of their eyes made his skin twitch and his lips draw in a scowl of irritation. He was only 13; barely touching on puberty and the insecurities of that awkward adolescence was deeply grafted in him even if he refused to acknowledge it.  
  
He didn't like the looks that most people gave him—eyes wide and the whites showing. It made him feel like a dangerous animal that those around him shied from. It made him crave the attention of anything but fear; the cold acceptance of the captain, the heated rivalry between himself and the broom head idiot...they were all better than sitting on the bench and watching as the feet of his peers moved beyond the invisible circle that was painted on the ground around him.  
  
Sometimes he didn't understand why he drew such stares—had his reputation been that hideous? He was a good student, a good son—he always minded his manners and tried to refrain from attracting attention to himself.  
  
But he was different.  
  
His eyes were feral and always seemed to seethe like a cornered beast's beneath the slate irises. His short temper and explosive violence were infamous along with his poisonous glares while the serpentine nature of his personality was bared for all to see—his hissing, his long, whipcord muscled limbs. Even his carry had a strange, sinuous line to it that unnerved everyone around him.  
  
Kaidoh had earned his nickname. He was the human embodiment of the Viper and there was nothing he could do to change that. He could try, but in the end all that the world would see was the serpent that slept under his skin, coiled and rattling it's tail angrily at anyone that walked by.  
  
He had no place to belong among the student body and could fit in only one place, where the very traits that terrified his peers were to his advantage.  
  
The Seigaku Regulars.  
  
He had his place among the members of the team...and he fought tooth and claw to keep it. He had trained everyday-running, lifting weights, pushing himself to the breaking point of his endurance and beyond. He had no gifts like the rest of them. He possessed neither the flexibility that Kikumaru had, nor was he a prodigy like that brat of a freshman. Neither did he posses the stunning intellect of Oishi and Inui and couldn't manipulate a match with sheer strength—instead he had to work to hone his endurance and what he, and only he, could do.  
  
Hours spent in the river, swinging the towel to develop his muscles to the point where he could hit the Boomerang, his ace up his sleeve. More than one opponent had mocked him for his lack of skill, his hissing and bull- headed stubbornness...but in the end his fangs would strike true.  
  
He, Kaidoh Kaoru, would sooner die than to give up.  
  
That was the only reason he kept working, training, even undergoing the pain of being under Inui's supervision where the weight of those glass shielded eyes were always there. Sometimes it scared him, the intensity of them. It made the nervousness inside well knowing that he was never able to stare back—that those eyes were watching everything he did when he couldn't even see them.  
  
The eyes were the window to the soul and at times his sempai really did seem as if he were an automaton; a mechanical creation of calculations and wicked smirks. It took the occasional moments where he could catch the mad genius in a moment of selfindulgence (often at his own expense) to keep him from thinking him a soulless cadaver.  
  
Inui was strange to Kaidoh...something he couldn't understand. The calculations were inhuman, too mechanical and sterile to seem normal to him. He liked nature, truth be told, he liked creatures of flesh and blood and the shifting tides of destiny. The cold mechanics of percents and numbers chilled him inside and confused him. No matter how hard he tried, it was simply something that he couldn't understand. ~  
  
"Lets do another lap and call it quits, Kaidoh."  
  
"Hai, sempai."  
  
The younger boy set down his water bottle and let out a hissing breath, the slapping of sneakers on the pavement a steady rhythm as the bobbing green tail of his bandana faded around the corner.  
  
Inui looked down at his notebook and tapped his pencil against the paper half-heartedly. Sometimes he didn't know what to add there, letting his mind wander as some numbers wrote themselves on the page—and angle increase here and a muscle mass increase there, they were getting to be a fine doubles team. His foresight and calculations made up for his kohai's spontaneity while the sheer stubbornness and endurance allowed him time to gather the data he needed.  
  
Data.  
  
It was one of his favorite words. Data was something that he could usually rely on and his numbers never lied...  
  
...but sometimes that changed. Sometimes with one look all of his perfect numbers and equations crumbled into a chaotic mess.  
  
He turned to another page and looked over it.  
  
Kaidoh Kaoru/right handed Seishun Gakuen Jr. High Department – 2nd year class 7 Height 173cm/ B type/ Born May 11 Favorite brands – shoes – Puma (cell factor PT0634  
racket – head (TI.57) Special attack: Snake Favorite food: Soba, yogurt, 100% pure juice Interests: Marathon, collecting bandanas Note: Easily angered...maybe due to lack of calcium  
  
He tapped his lower lip with his pen thoughtfully, then sighed, leaning back on the bench and looking up at the darkening sky. He pondered over the equations and frowned a little. They mislead him. The data that he was so sure of changed—not even with just the Captain and Fuuji and Ryoma...but with someone as simple and transparent as Kaidoh. It irritated him a little still, the fact that he was beaten by his kouhai—yet at the same time he really didn't mind. In a way he was proud of the improvement that the Viper was undergoing but he still didn't like that he was improving at a rate that made him unpredictable.  
  
The body was an easy thing to control. He could fix up the Mamushi's schedule to improve the muscles he wanted and help increase his lung capacity...but at times he couldn't quite understand what went on behind those angry eyes.  
  
That disturbed him.  
  
He could always read the younger boy like a book. He was see-through. Nothing to push his goals, really.  
  
At this point in their training he assumed that he would know everything about him, why he ticked and what each and every hiss meant. It would ensure his victory in the next ranking matches...which lead to the question of why he was baffled.  
  
It made no sense to him and in his logical mind where everything could be figured out with a mathematical equation it just did not compute. His brain stalled—stopping over the problem and trying to examine it in hopes of coming up with a solution.  
  
Yet...there was nothing.  
  
He had no answer for the questions in his mind—and he often wondered just why he spent so much time thinking about Kaidoh. He wasn't Tezuka, a final destination to be reached. He wasn't Fuji, an enigma that just begged to be solved. He wasn't even Momo with his untapped potential.  
  
He was Kaidoh; a boy that was honest and straightforward, shy and would never get any farther than his own training could take him. He needed no more data on him for he had everything there was to know...didn't he?  
  
Then why was he still confused?  
  
Why couldn't he understand those eyes when they darkened?  
  
Why was he never able to find the Viper's breaking point?  
  
But most importantly of all the questions was the one he dare not ask himself, why did he even care?  
  
~  
  
Kaidoh's breathing was steady as he jogged. The sound of his feet pounding on the ground and the thudding of his heart was comforting as he hissed softly, seeing the familiar sight of his sempai waiting on the bench for him.  
  
After he finished his jog, the older boy would write down his time, then leave the park with him until they parted ways to go home.  
  
There never really was any formed relationship between them, perhaps a polite good bye or hello but never even as much as a hand shake. The only times they touched were when they had to, Inui helping the Mamushi to stretch out his long body and warm up muscles for training.  
  
They never really talked that much either and worked together in a more or less compatible silence. It was hardly intimate, but not as cold as it used to be. It was even tolerable now.  
  
When the older boy had first proposed the idea of them training together, Kaidoh had been less than thrilled with the idea of having to spend so much time with the sadistic genius, but he couldn't say no to a sempai and as questionable as his motives were, Inui was most able to help him.  
  
And so the tentative alliance was formed and it slowly grew to a routine. While it was less than friendly, it was functional and became routine. He was used to the older boy's spectacles and eerie silence...even the odd cackle that would come now and then, but he was still tense at times around him.  
  
Was it fear?  
  
There was a point that he could say yes easily and clearly—but the tension had changed and he no longer was AS terrified as he used to be. Rather it was a different type, coupled with the fluttering butterflies of nervousness in his stomach and the sheer disconcerting appearance of one who's eyes you never saw.  
  
As he approached the bench, the taller boy stood up slowly and offered that strange half-smile he gave now and then.  
  
"Alright...let's call it a day, Kaidoh. We'll increase your running time by .5% tomorrow. I think you can handle it."  
  
It was as much of a praise as any and it satisfied the Mamushi as he fell in step with his sempai. The sound of their sneakers against the pavement echoed along the empty park as each boy was lost in his own thoughts, silent. The lamppost drew nearer as they reached the departure point and for one moment, turned to face each other.  
  
"Goodnight, sempai. Thank you for training with me." Kaidoh bowed a little, tone curt, but polite.  
  
"You always say that, Kaidoh...day in and day out, you always thank me. Why?"  
  
The Viper blinked. That was not part of their carefully orchestrated routine. Instead of a murmured 'night' in return and a tip of a spiky black head, the posed question flung itself at his face.  
  
"...sempai?"  
  
His eyes were confused as he looked up, chancing to look into those blank pieces of glass, wondering at the question. Change was a problem...it threw him off balance when he was so used to the cold formality of their non- relationship.  
  
"I wonder...do you really like training with me? Is that why you thank me?" the tone was soft and only faintly curious.  
  
"...we get results, don't we? I improve so I suppose I like training." He had to think about his words carefully, stumbling over them a little.  
  
"The question is do you like training with me. We've been doing this for quite some time now...and my data shows the chances of you actually enjoying it is only 46%." The glass stared at him intently.  
  
"I...don't know what you mean, sempai...of course I enjoy it...it's relaxing and it improves my health and my performance. I'd never be able to train with Momo or even..." he stuttered a little, his face growing a little heated under the heavy gaze. He could feel the blush creeping up his cheeks even as he hissed in frustration, looking up into those square frames.  
  
~  
  
So...his data had failed again.  
  
Inui's brows drew slightly as he looked down into those slate colored eyes. The flustered state was predicted at a 68% chance but the response was uncalculated. He knew his kouhai would be thrown off, the steady routine of their training was unchanged until he chanced it...but he had assumed that he would get a curt and polite reply; one that was as cold and impersonal as anything else they said to each other.  
  
His hand rose and lightly lifted Kaidoh's chin as he looked down, looking intently into those eyes as if he could find the answer in them—soothe the roiling confusion that was brewing up.  
  
They had no relationship. He was a trainer and Kaidoh was the athlete he was preparing. There was nothing to attract his attention other than what was necessary to help the younger boy improve.  
  
Nothing.  
  
Then why was he gazing into those wide, fearful eyes?  
  
Why was it with one look that his wall of data came crashing down?  
  
"Kaidoh."  
  
The deer in the head lights look was strangely becoming, appeasing the sadist in him as his thumb stroked over his jaw, making a note on how his skin was relatively soft—possibly due to the influence of a mother figure.  
  
"Y-yes, sempai?" the responding voice was dry and somewhat cracked.  
  
"You're going to reach your best soon, possibly a year or two. Your body and what you can make it do are all that you'll even be in tennis, Kaidoh."  
  
The look in those eyes was strangely hurt and despite his intention, Inui could feel something twisting in his bowels at it.  
  
"According to my data, I can't take you much farther...are you sure you want to keep training with me?"  
  
In his mind he already had the data laid out. When the Viper heard the truth...that he really couldn't do much more in their training and how limited his ability to improve under his tutelage was, it would be over. They would politely part ways with no hard feelings—there were none to harden in the first place.  
  
Then why was he steeling himself for the answer?  
  
He looked down at the younger boy, having unconsciously moved closer to the point where their breaths were mingling. His mind never even calculated the possibility that he would want to move just a little closer to taste the other boy.  
  
"Sempai?"  
  
"Yes Kaidoh?" he wondered what it would be like now that he would train alone again. It would be odd...and he knew that he would miss the company. It even saddened him a little and a part of him wished he had kept that data to himself.  
  
"Data can change. It's never 100%." Those slate eyes were fierce again and the older boy blinked a little in surprise. "I'll never accept that I can't go any further...and as my doubles partner, sempai, you shouldn't either."  
  
There was a quick and dry touch of lips as the younger boy pressed forward, cheeks heated with embarrassment. Inui was too stunned to react before the Viper had hissed and turned, jogging down the street towards his home.  
  
The older boy touched his lips briefly and looked down at his fingers, the numbers having stopped for a moment before he smiled and adjusted his glasses. The notebook was opened and the pen touched the white paper where he left off not even an hour before. With one look his data might have been torn down...but he could always write more.  
  
7:21 pm 


End file.
